rubicon - If he indeed was running your plate (for any reason - I believe they are allowed to do that), it does take a bit of time on occasion for them to get the feedback/data they're looking for. Whether or not you were in the right or wrong (or not doing anything wrong), law enforcement does this on quite a regular basis.
To your question about it happening to us:
A friend of ours had the same thing happen to him last year. Local sheriff following him fairly tight for no apparent reason, then the lights flip on for him to pull over. The problem: Our friend had 'restricted driving privileges' and the sheriff wanted to check things out. The info the sheriff received back when he ran the plate said 'Suspended License'. Fortunately, our friend was able to get it all squared away on the spot (he had all the proper and appropriate paperwork with him).........but he just about got hauled off because he kept demanding an explanation from the sheriff's deputy for why he got pulled over. He was irate but fortunately got himself calmed down enough that nothing further ensued.
I even had it happen to
me once, years back. True story - - - Sandy and I were going to 'the next town over', just taking a spin in an older car we had at the time. Local police close to where we lived saw us pass by on our way out of town while he was sitting along side the road chatting with someone. He gave us the eye when we went by but nothing happened. When we came back into his town on the way back, there he was....still sitting. Sure enough, he starts following us...and kept following us for a few miles.....beyond the town's limits. Bingo - on come the lights. Uh-oh. He was not a happy camper - he'd run the plates that were on the car (a Chevy Nova) and they came back as registered to a Toyota! Granted, it was MY Toyota, but still......"Ummmm, well, uh.......I.....ahh" My bad - we only drove that car about once or twice a year and I'd never bothered to get plates for it, thinking I'd save a couple of bucks. I'm not the brightest bulb in the package sometimes, especially back then! He impounded the car on the spot - and said he had every right to take me to the lockup if he so chose to. Sandy and I ended up walking about 3 miles home - and it cost me a half-day off work, go pay for a set of plates, go to the storage lot where they'd taken the car, pay the couple hundred dollar impound/towing/storage fees..........my bad. Why did he choose to run the plates? Dunno....maybe he was a Ford guy....maybe he didn't like red cars....it doesn't matter. Moral: Things like getting your plates run for no really good reason DOES happen to people. Sometimes they turn up nothing.....and sometimes they snag idiots like me who really never thought up-front at the time about the potential repercussions. It's a part of their job. I think we'd all be surprised to see the statistics of how many criminals are turned up that way.
Bill
